Thursday, February 01, 2007

I make a lot of green soups in the summer (peas, avocados, zucchini, stuff like that), but it hadn't really occurred to me that in the winter, soups are orange.This one was made from two types of winter squash (delicata and a little acorn squash that had gotten so old, it really needed to be eaten), some homemade vegetable broth, a shallot sautéed in butter, some cumin and cayenne and salt, and a nice dab of crème fraîche. And since I had a little homemade tomato sauce in the fridge, that went in, too. What a neat trick. Good enough to actually think of thawing some tomato sauce for the next time I want orange soup.

Technique: Cut squashes in halves, remove seeds, and microwave, face-down, in a covered glass dish to which you've added a sprinkle of water, for 10 minutes or until easily pierced. Meanwhile, sauté sliced shallot in butter until tender. When squash is cool enough to handle, scrape the flesh into a soup pot and add the shallots. Pour in the tomato sauce, vegetable broth and your seasonings, and mix it all together, breaking up the squash chunks. Now dump this all into the blender and give it a hearty whirl until everything is very smooth. Wipe out the soup pot and pour the puréed mix in, along with some crème fraîche. Stir well. Heat the soup, check the seasonings, and take a picture.

16 comments:

OH YEAH! (Picture the Kool-aid guy from commercials of our youth bursting through something and announcing this for full effect.) This looks like awesome in a bowl. Squash soup and creme fraiche are the ultimate bowl-mates; guaranteed success. In fact, in the past I have gone out and purchased squash just to use up the creme I had leftover.

I heard once of John Muir saying something like: "its seems like americans need to pass everything under a cow before they eat it!" In this case, abso-(bleep)ing-lutely.

That's one pretty soup. Next year I have to freeze some squash puree to make it last all winter: my apartment is too small and too warm to store fall crops in. I just mad some good bread and wish I had this soup to eat it with...

Moonbear: I believe you now when you say you're going to go make something in the kitchen! How'd it come out?

Catherine (and all the others who have so kindly complimented me for that photo): I have been hacking, hacking away at my skills. I'm more comfortable with focus and lighting these days, so now I'm working with styling. Look though your cookbooks at the photos, not the recipes. That's been my inspiration lately.

Circumspice: So can anybody explain how that four-month old squash survived, just by sitting on a kitchen counter? I mean, yeah, the kitchen's a little cool, but... !!

Dr. Biggles: OK, I'm calling Cranky. He's over there on his bike somewhere. I'm dreaming about that sauce.

Stacie: Thanks! Aw, look at you in your new photo with the killer hat! You are so pretty.

Susan: I actually snooped around some blogs for photos of other orange soups, but I only came up with gold and pinkish...

Cyndi, my deepest apologies. I cruise by your blog all the time, but lately my RSS feed tells me I've missed either 27 of your posts, or none at all, or... (and not just your blog; others I've bookmarked too). Maybe I should go back to the good old fashioned way of reading blogs. I'll swing by and see what you all came up with.

Who She?

I live a couple of miles from the Marin County Civic Center Farmers' Market, which feeds my little blogging hobby. Hell, it feeds me, too.
Formerly employed, I'm now a bum. Happy bum. Tomato ranchin' bum.
But I'm still mad.